Studio scene comparison (@ ISO 400)

Lighting: Two 800W studio lamps with dichroic daylight filters
bounced off the ceiling

Fujifilm Finepix F810

Olympus C8080

ISO 400, 0.1 sec,
F5

ISO 400, 0.07 sec, F5

4,274 KB JPEG

3,477 KB JPEG

Noise, std dev: 3.0

Noise, std dev: 3.3

At ISO 400 the differences between the two cameras are considerably less marked, with the inherent noise of the C-8080's 8MP sensor requiring more aggressive noise reduction, masking some detail. Looking at the crops, and the full size image, it is obvious that both default contrast and sharpening on the F810 are set too high. You can reduce sharpening in-camera, but unfortunately not contrast. Aside from this it is hard not to be impressed by the amount of detail captured, the vibrant colors and the very low noise. Great for prints without too much work, less useful for extensive post-processing, I'd like to see Fujifilm offering a more muted approach to color, contrast and sharpening - even if only as an option.